


holy branches

by rvnwyn



Category: Batman (Comics), Superman (Comics)
Genre: First Kiss, Fluff, Idiots in Love, M/M, all of batfam makes brief appearances
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-23
Updated: 2020-07-23
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:00:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25434277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rvnwyn/pseuds/rvnwyn
Summary: Bruce and Clark at three different stages in their lives, as strangers, as friends, as lovers.
Relationships: Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne
Comments: 2
Kudos: 89





	holy branches

**Author's Note:**

> I had planned this to be much longer, but this is all I could write at the moment. The title inspired by Radical Face's The Family Tree albums.

**strangers**

It was supposed to be simple.

Three hostages in the building, with Penguin's goons surrounding them. Batman had picked them up one by one silently until he had reached the main room. Watching the ten henchmen patrolling afar from the ventilation shaft he had sneaked in merely seconds ago, Batman knew stealth was not an option anymore. He would have to fight.

He had not requested the help of an alien.

If he were lucky, Superman would not cause any complications. But luck was never on his side.

Batman jumped out of the vent exactly at the same time a goon spotted Superman's figure descending from above and turned his rifle towards his side of the room. They went through the fight without a hitch, a couple of untrained henchmen obviously not an eligible match for the pair. Batman's fist collided with the side of a man's skull just as Superman sent the last one flying, and in a matter of seconds, the fight was over. The only sounds left in the room after the sudden explosion of violence were the quiet whimpers of the hostages.

Batman turned harshly towards Superman, keeping an eye on the three people bound to the metal chairs. His hand was already making a move for his utility belt, expecting a fight. Instead, he was met with the image of Superman standing tall with arms relaxed at his sides, silently watching him with his head slightly tilted to the side. His gaze was focused and gentle, as if he were trying to analyze, to _understand_ this man before him.

Superman looked confused, with a tinge of sadness hidden behind a look Bruce could not truly decipher.

He looked human.

Bruce felt slightly overwhelmed for a reason he could not understand, his hand still hovering above his utility belt. After two seconds, Superman calmly turned around to untie the hostages, turning his back against Batman's hostile figure. A sign of trust.

Batman let his hand fall to his side.

He opened the locked door that lead to the corridor where he knew Gordon and his unit would be waiting, trusting Superman enough safely free everyone. As all of them stared silently with slightly wide eyes and faces riddled with panic, Batman guided them to the right direction.

As they walked off and disappeared into the corridor, Batman and Superman were suddenly alone in the large room, surrounded by unconscious henchmen, the silence between them stretching thin. Superman took a second to watch the corridor where the hostages disappeared off to just a second ago. Before he got a chance to say anything to Batman, he turned to see his figure far away in the balcony, facing the night sky in front of him head on.

"Get out of my city," Batman demanded as he took his grappling hook from his utility belt and fired at the nearest building, disappearing from sight in seconds.

**friends**

Clark knew the way to his hidden entrance to the cave like the back of his hand. He breathed the cool morning air right before going inside the damp entryway and slowly made his way forward.

Bruce sat in front of the computer in his Batman suit minus the cowl, his hair sticking at all sides making it obvious that he had only recently taken it off. Dick was in his pajamas, watching the computer screen intently on top of the slightly taller cabinet perched like, for lack of a better word, a bird. As stealthy as Clark was trying to be, Bruce’s voice rose from where he was still staring at the screen and typing rapidly as soon as Clark entered.

“Clark, you should see this.”

As Bruce spoke up, Dick turned to see him and jumped off in one swift motion as Clark’s figure approached them, grabbed him by the hand excitedly and started dragging him towards the computer in a matter of seconds.

Clark sighed loudly as he was getting dragged across the cave towards Bruce. “I wasn’t even making any footstep sounds this time. I was _hovering_ , Bruce!”

“I use my echolocation abilities to hear the bats flapping their wings whenever you approach.”

Clark took a second to squint in Bruce’s direction even though he was looking at the computer screen. “You have a motion sensor in the entryway, don’t you?”

“Yes. Here, look at this.” Bruce gestured to the blueprint on the screen.

As Dick let go of his hand, Clark focused on the distinct parts of the blueprint to realize that it was plans for the orbital command center they had mentioned in passing at the last meeting with the newly formed Justice League. It was crafted meticulously down to the slightest detail complete with a control room and a conference center.

“Isn’t it _so_ _cool,_ Uncle Clark? It’s in space.” Dick quickly climbed onto the table before Bruce could intervene and pointed at a small part of the blueprint. It looked like two sofas and a table, so foreign in the middle of all the detailed plans for necessary technological equipment. “In case you need a place to rest. It was my idea.” he said, looking smug.

Bruce motioned for Dick to climb down, which he complied. “And it is what will be the most essential part of this building. Now go and get dressed. You are going to be late to school.”

Clark watched as Dick’s face soured at the mere mention. “Ugh, I don’t need- “

“No, you’re definitely not missing school, go and get dressed.”

“Fine.” Dick said, making sure that it sounded like a complaint even as he agreed. He started making his way up the stairs that lead to the Manor, stomping loudly at every step.

Bruce turned to tweak some minor details of the blueprint and after a moment had passed, heard Clark’s pleasant chuckle beside him.

Bruce turned to see Clark watching him serenely, with a small smile still apparent on his face. Bruce let his confusion show with a slight furrow of his brow.

“You’re a good dad.”

Bruce’s breath caught in his throat, taken aback by the sudden statement. Clark continued watching him with gentle eyes and the smile still plastered on his face even after he had felt Bruce tense up, as if he were expecting it. Bruce relaxed as he watched Clark’s face and took several deep breaths. “Thank you. I hope so.”

Bruce turned back at the computer screen and felt Clark’s hand on his shoulder, giving a slight squeeze as to reassure him.

**lovers**

“I got it, Uncle Clark.” Dick swiftly took the empty plate in front of him before Clark could lay a hand on it. Steph grinned beside them.

“Wow, you really still call him Uncle Clark?”

Dick sighed as if he was hearing this question for the fifth time that night, which he was. “Ugh. Okay, what would you have me call him?”

“Um, just Clark. You know, like a cool person.” Steph’s voice indicated that she was very obviously teasing him, and it was working.

Dick’s response was and sighing once again more loudly and gathering the empty plates even faster, the clatter of the plates drowning out the sound of Steph’s stifled laugh.

“Come on, if you keep messing around Alfred’s going to catch us before we clean the table.”

Steph turned to Clark after gathering what seemed to be solely the last three dirty cups compared to Dick’s ten plates and cutleries on top of them. “Alfred gets super mad whenever we do the cleaning around the house,” she explained, as if Clark hadn’t met Alfred before.

“I was here during the Christmas Incident of 2014, I know.”

His response got a confused look out of Steph, who consequently went running in the direction Dick had just disappeared off to in order to ask him about the events Clark mentioned. Clark grinned, and turned to look at Bruce who was the only person on the table left besides him. He seemed completely focused on the report on his tablet and looked as if he hadn’t heard the exchange save for the small smile that formed on his lips and disappeared in a single moment. Clark had gotten very good at catching those types of smiles from Bruce in the last years.

They kept sitting on the table, Bruce reading his report and Clark mostly watching him. There was no doubt in Clark’s mind that Bruce had noticed, but he hadn’t said anything.

After some time, Bruce closed his tablet and rubbed his eyes. He looked up to find Clark staring at him and gently placed his tablet on the now empty table.

“Come on.”

They got up from the table, Clark silently following Bruce in the large corridors of the Manor. Voices rose from the large TV room as they passed by.

“Just you watch, I’m going to kick your ass,” Duke threatened in a very serious manner.

“Language,” Bruce immediately responded as they walked by the door. Clark saw Duke and Jason booting up Mario Kart with a brief glance as they passed, Cass and Damian already sitting on the sofa with the controllers in their hands.

“Seriously? Jason has been cursing like a drunken sailor this whole time and you picked that exact moment to walk past the room?”

More sounds erupted from the room with Cass’s laughter being the loudest amongst all the yelling as they walked off. After making a few more turns as the sounds slowly faded away, their walk ended in front of an elegantly decorated cabinet.

“I used to sneak in here to steal wine while Alfred was sleeping,” Bruce said as he opened the cabinet to get the red wine from the top shelf. “I think he knew.”

Clark chuckled at the mental image of Alfred, plain in sight, watching teenager Bruce trying and failing to be sneaky with a disappointed look on his face. “Yeah, he probably did.”

Bruce took two glasses and asked, “The garden?”

“Sure.”

They slowly walked outside to the back garden of the manor, the breeze bringing a slight coldness to the air. The garden in the back was smaller in proportion compared to the front, but it had always seemed cozier to Clark, with a small fireplace and the various types of flowers Alfred tended to off to the side. Whenever Bruce would mention the garden, Clark knew Bruce would lead him to the one in the back, because it was Clark’s favorite.

Before Bruce could make his way towards the chairs on the patio, Clark hastily plopped himself onto the grass. He turned to see Bruce who had stopped walking and was now staring at him with an unamused look.

“Come on, it’s dry,” Clark said. “Mostly,” he added like an afterthought as he took off his shoes. Even though Bruce glared at him briefly, he went on to sit next to Clark and much to his delight, take off his shoes and dig his toes into the dirt as well.

“I hate this.”

“I know you don’t.”

Clark took the bottle and glasses from where Bruce placed them just a moment ago and slowly poured. They sat together in that exact position for some time, with sounds of moths hitting the small lamps surrounding the garden and their small sips breaking the silence once in a while. Neither of them disrupted the quiet as they relished in its calming comfort.

Bruce didn’t quite understand what happened between the last sip of his wine and his lips touching Clark’s. They leaned in at the exact same time, motions mirroring each other with perfect harmony.

Clark’s lips felt so new and so natural at the same time, as if this were their first touch and the last simultaneously. Clark’s hand between the locks of his hair felt like scorching fire one moment and like a steadying force connecting him to earth the next. Almost as if this were how they were meant to be all along, lips touching and feet exposed on the cool grass, knowing each other bare.

They pulled away with faces resting just inches away from each other, Clark’s hand moving from his hair to warming Bruce’s cheek.

“Gross,” came the voice from behind them, surprisingly startling even Bruce. They tilted their heads to see Tim standing right by the door. “Alfred’s calling everyone inside for dessert.” With that small note, he calmly walked back inside.

Bruce and Clark watched the door for a few more seconds. Clark, as always, was the one to break the silence.

“He… uh, he didn’t seem surprised.”

“I overheard them placing bets a week ago. Apparently, Dick thinks we’ve been dating for at least two years.”

“Should we tell them that was our first kiss?”

“Depends on who you want the winner to be.”

Clark chuckled and started gathering their empty glasses with sounds rising from inside the manor as the horde of children passed by the corridor.

Bruce felt the cool air hitting his face and the soil between his toes, warmth still coursing his veins as Clark’s laughter and his children’s voices drowned out the sound of the wind.

Maybe luck was on his side after all.


End file.
